Race
Report:
There are many sorts of motor race, some more exciting than
others. At Monza on Saturday afternoon the British F3 International
Series boys gave us more excitement than we could possibly
have asked for. This was a thriller of a race, a rollercoaster
ride with no brakes, and probably one of the best races anywhere
this or any other season. Coming to a track like Monza, where
everything is about slipstreaming, and speed, there was always
a chance we might get something special and the Italian Grand
Prix track delivered in spades. However, before we could get
as far as the race, some people were having dramas, and very
uncomfortable ones at that. Adam Khan (Performance Racing)
was still in the paddock when the fire extinguisher went off
in the cockpit, covering him in extinguisher fluid, which
apparently "smells awful". In many teams that would
have been the end of his race, but Performance are resourceful
and very, very quick when it comes to repair work. Before
you could blink, they had the offending extinguisher removed,
and a new one hooked up and armed. It was so fast that the
officials had to check it after the race to make sure it was
all present and correct. Khan would start the race from the
back of the grid, which was no bad thing as it turned out.
Also starting from the back was Salvador Duran (P1 Motorsport),
the Mexican having had his National Class pole time disallowed
for being in possession of a rear wing that was too tall.
Not only did the race turn out to be incredibly exciting,
but the track proved it bites as well. And the first person
to be bitten was Marko Asmer (Hitech Racing), the Estonian
getting it all wrong in the first corner. As he locked up
and ended up sideways, the resulting ripple effect took out
a number of other competitors, and severely affected the positions
of a number of others. Asmer didn't do a lot to endear himself
to his team when one of the people he managed to inadvertently
push into the scenery turned out to be his team-mate, Tim
Bridgman who was at least able to get going again. However,
in the resulting mayhem, we also lost Ryan Lewis (T-Sport),
Daniel Clarke (Double R Racing), James Walker (Fortec Motorsport)
and Nick Jones (Team SWR) to the nearest available gravel
traps. It wasn't a good start to the race, but the incredibly
efficient marshals soon had everyone dragged to various places
of safety, and the race was able to continue unabated. At
the front, Alvaro Parente (Carlin Motorsport) made a terrific
start, getting the drop on team-mate Charlie Kimball as they
tore into the first bend, the Prima Variante. There was nothing
Kimball could do but slot into second, and follow the Portuguese
as the two of them quickly started to build up a substantial
gap to the squabbling pack behind. It was probably the best
place to be; that or at the back, as Christopher Wassermann
(HBR Motorsport) was discovering, the Austrian in his first
F3 race having bogged down at the start. It meant he didn't
get a bird's-eye view of the melee which was building up behind
Kimball. It was being headed by Bridgman, with Mike Conway
(Fortec Motorsport) right behind him, and then an indistinct
gaggle of Dallaras which contained Danilo Dirani (P1 Motorsport),
Steven Kane (Promatecme F3) and Bruno Senna (Double R Racing),
though not always in that order. It rather depended where
you were on the circuit when they went past! It was a train
that steadily built up, as well, or perhaps a better word
would be unsteadily judging by the rapid slipstreaming that
was going on; this was like watching the fastest Formula Ford
race in the world.
Two laps later Senna would uncouple himself from the train,
ending his race in the gravel and making team manager Anthony
Hieatt wonder why they'd bothered coming all this way. At
the same time, Kane lost places when he got caught up in Senna's
exit, and went bouncing through the gravel. At the same time,
Dirani took advantage of the chaos to get the better of Conway,
and then set about Bridgman. He was looking very determined,
now that he had a sniff of a podium placing. Christian Bakkerud
(Carlin Motorsport) was also benefiting from the confusion.
Having started 17th, he was in the top ten, and thus in the
points. He'd once again made a terrific start, and had capitalised
on other's misfortunes to haul himself into the points. He'd
scored points in every round of the championship so far, and
he wanted to keep that record going; no one else could say
the same thing this year.
Meanwhile, in the National Class, Duran was infuriated at
having started from the back of the grid, and now also at
not being able to get past Keiko Ihara (Carlin Motorsport),
though he got through on lap 5 when she accidentally tapped
the Class leader, Charlie Hollings (Promatecme F3), and spun
off. That let Duran through, and Hollings' found himself dropping
three places, while Duran set off in pursuit of the class
leader, T-Sport's Barton Mawer. Hollings, meanwhile, was now
behind Jonathan Kennard (Alan Docking Racing), Ben Clucas
(Fluid Motorsport) and Josh Fisher (Team SWR). It would be
a race long battle between them, and it was every bit as entertaining
as the scuffle for third in the Championship Class. Even the
men at the back were fighting for position, with Ricardo Teixeira
(Carlin Motorsport) and Cheong Lou Meng (Edenbridge Racing)
having a slow speed battle not to be last.
And with a third of the race distance run, things were also
hotting up in the battle for the lead, Kimball closing down
Parente at a rate of knots, gaining half a second from somewhere
on lap 6. He was getting ever closer to the leader, and was
taking full advantage of the possibilities for gaining a tow
down the long straights here. It was fascinating stuff, and
in no way eclipsed by the battle for 3rd, which was becoming
very fraught. This was especially obvious when both Dirani
and Conway decided to make a move on Bridgman. Now while three
abreast may work on the straights, it becomes a bit of an
issue when you're trying to get round a corner. The inevitable
happened, when Dirani went one side of the Hitech driver and
Conway went the other; next thing they were through and Bridgman
disappeared up one of the escape roads, here he could be seen
a little later hurling his steering wheel about and kicking
things to the amusement of many, but probably not of his team.
There were waved yellows all over the place, and people were
getting very physical, leading to the black and white driving
standards flag being waved with reckless abandon on the start/finish
line. Jelley managed to trip over Ihara, to his obvious displeasure,
and for that matter hers. Meanwhile Clucas claimed 2nd place
in the National Class from Kennard, after a side-by-side session
and a spot of elbowing. With Clucas past, Hollings saw his
chance to put a move on Kennard as well, a dispute settled
after the pair banged wheels together, and Kennard went for
a brief off-track excursion. It was all a bit rough, but they
all seemed to be having fun out there too. Certainly afterwards
the general opinion seemed to be that the series' first visit
to the Italian track had been a great success, and should
be repeated at the first possible opportunity. Meanwhile,
however, there was a race to be run.
Almost unnoticed, Bakkerud had hacked his way up to 6th, making
short work of Ronayne O'Mahony (Fortec Motorsport), the Irishman
running much further up than he normally does. And while Bakkerud
was trying to improve on his starting position, he gained
an extra place when it all went pear-shaped for Kane. Having
passed Conway for 4th, he was suddenly in trouble. Perhaps
it was the result of contact in the melee, but whatever the
result he was off the track, crashing through some polystyrene
markers and coming to rest in the wall, with heavy suspension
damage. That left Conway and Dirani duelling all the way to
the finish, the Brazilian getting the better of the Englishman
after an incredibly close race. It was impressive stuff. However,
suddenly all eyes were on the front of the field, where Parente
could see Kimball in his mirrors (he couldn't have seen anyone
else - the pair of them were a good 10 seconds ahead of everyone
else). In fact, the American was so close that he appeared
to be the second half of an 8-wheeled Dallara. It was also
very clear that there were no team orders at Carlin. It was
made even clearer when Charlie slipstreamed past Alvaro, only
for his team-mate to come straight back at him. What followed
was tense for Carlin, but the spectators loved it. Swapping
places and running side-by-side where space allowed, they
fought it out to the finish. If Kimball went left to try and
pass, he'd find Parente already there, and when he got in
front Kimball was equally happy to return the favour. It was
a wonderfully clean but fierce battle, and it was only settled
on the last lap when Kimball decided to make one last lunge,
got it slightly wrong and dropped his wheels in the dirt.
It was enough to let Parente run for the chequered flag, while
Kimball recovered and hauled himself out of trouble to claim
a thoroughly deserved 2nd place and an extra point for fastest
lap.
Dirani just held Conway off for 3rd, while Bakkerud was an
unexpected 5th. O'Mahony claimed his best finish of the season
with 6th, while the National Class winner was up in an amazing
7th overall and had an extra point for fastest lap. He had
Duran closing him down in the final laps, but was able to
snatch yet another win to add to his points lead in the class.
Clucas had to settle for 3rd, with the next Championship Class
runner Karl Reindler claiming 7th in class but 10th overall.
For a man who hasn't raced at all this year, and who is new
to British F3 it was a very good result. 4th in the National
Class was Hollings, who had been forced to hold off Josh Fisher
(Team SWR) and Khan at the end. The invitation class was won
by Alejandro Nunez (HBR Motorsport), and Kennard came home
behind him. 8th place in the Championship Class went to Jelley,
who was 16th overall. 17th was Juho Annala (Alan Docking Racing)
who had Christopher Wassermann in the other HBR car behind
him, Ihara finished 19th, ahead of Cheong and Teixeira, while
Kane was classified 22nd, and thus scored points despite being
in the gravel. If the second race of the day was only half
as exciting, it would be well worth watching.
Afterwards, Parente was delighted to win, and seemed to have
thoroughly enjoyed himself. "It was a great race. I got
a really good start, braking on the inside into the first
corner, side-by-side with my team-mate Charlie. Towards the
end he caught me back. With the long straights, the tow is
really important here, and the guy behind just closes in really
quickly. The advantage you gain in the corners you lose on
the straights. We had some really good racing in the last
two laps, he overtook me, I overtook him back, he overtook
me again, and then I got him back - it was really good fun
and I managed to win which was really good!"
Kimball was grinning almost as widely, though he admitted
to maybe being more careful than he would have been passing
someone from another team. "There are no team orders
at Carlin. We're all out there to win. But when it's your
team-mate, you have to be a bit more careful about passing
him, to make sure it's a clean pass. It was really good racing
and I have to compliment Alvaro because he kept it clean and
it was really enjoyable. I didn't get as good a start, but
we knew we were going to try to make it a two-car race. We
had a big gap, and I caught Alvaro back when the tyres came
in. I was setting up for a last corner pass, when I made a
small mistake that turned into a big mistake at the second
Lesmo, and I got all four wheels in the gravel so I couldn't
make my move, but I'll take the 16 points for second and the
fastest lap."
It was Clucas who probably summed up best what everyone was
already thinking: "Monza is a great track. It's so fast
and you use so much of the kerb here I'll be surprised if
half the cars aren't broken by the end of the meeting!"